1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rolled article comprising a roll of elongate sheet, and a method of and an apparatus for processing such a rolled article.
2. Description of the Related Art
Films for use in the field of platemaking are in the form of a light-shielded photosensitive roll comprising an elongate photosensitive sheet wound around a core, a pair of light-shielding members mounted respectively on the opposite ends of the wound photosensitive sheet, and a light-shielding sheet (leader) wound around the photosensitive sheet.
Various light-shielded photosensitive rolls have heretofore been proposed in the art. The applicant of the present application has filed a patent application on a process for easily manufacturing such a light-shielded photosensitive roll (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-310834).
According to the process disclosed in the above patent application, as shown in FIG. 105 of the accompanying drawings, two disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 are attached respectively to opposite ends of a photosensitive roll (rolled article) 1, and an elongate heat-shrinkable light-shielding leader 3 which is longitudinally shrinkable with heat is wound around the photosensitive roll 1, the light-shielding leader 3 having an end fixed to the photosensitive roll 1 by tapes 4. Then, the photosensitive roll 1 is placed in a shrink tunnel and heated to shrink the light-shielding leader 3. The light-shielding leader 3 is shrunk with heat to have its opposite edges brought into close contact with the outer edges of the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2, whereupon a light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 is completed.
The light-shielding leader 3 is joined to the end of the photosensitive roll 1 by a joint tape 6. Since the end of the photosensitive roll 1 is a free end, it tends to have a different length. In addition, the end of the photosensitive roll 1 is liable to curl up or down or sag depending on the width of the photosensitive roll 1, the thickness of the sheet of the photosensitive roll 1, or the type of the photosensitive roll 1.
Because of these irregularities of the end of the photosensitive roll 1, the joint tape 6 may be applied to the end of the photosensitive roll 1 in a displaced position, or may be applied obliquely to the end of the photosensitive roll 1, or wrinkles may be developed in the end of the photosensitive roll 1. As a result, the light-shielding leader 3 may not be attached securely to the end of the photosensitive roll 1.
Usually, suction belts and suction pads are used to supply the light-shielding leader 3 to a position where the light-shielding leader 3 will be applied to the photosensitive roll 1. However, the suction belts and suction pads tend to fail to position the end of the light-shielding leader 3 accurately in the applying position, resulting in a reduction in the accuracy with which the light-shielding leader 3 is applied to the photosensitive roll 1.
After the light-shielding leader 3 is applied to the end of the photosensitive roll 1, the light-shielding leader 3 may possibly be warped when the photosensitive roll 1 is rotated. If the light-shielding leader 3 is warped, then the light-shielding leader 3 wound around the photosensitive roll 1 is shifted out of position in its turn.
End tapes 4 are usually supported in an array on a separable strip 7 before they are supplied to the light-shielding leader 3. End tapes 4 are then successively removed from the separable strip 7 and supplied to the light-shielding leader 3. According to the conventional process, the end tapes 4 applied to the separable strip 7 may not reliably be removed one by one from the separable strip 7, and hence may not efficiently be supplied to the light-shielding leader 3.
The light-shielding leader 3 is relatively expensive to manufacture. Therefore, rectangular heat-shrinkable members (hereinafter referred to as “skirt members”) are used to cover the opposite ends of the photosensitive roll 1, and applied to the respective edges of the light-shielding leader 3.
Skirt members are usually blanked from a blank sheet. The yield of skirt members per blank sheet is low because a large amount of scrap is produced. For better efficiency, blanked skirt members need to be collected and handled together. However, it is difficult to separate, one by one, the skirt members which have been collected and handled together, and two or more skirt members may simultaneously be removed from the stock of skirt members, with the result that the skirts cannot efficiently be applied to the edges of the light-shielding leader 3.
As shown in FIG. 106 of the accompanying drawings, flanged members 7 may be mounted respectively in the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 of the photosensitive roll 1 as required by a device which is loaded with the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5. The disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 have grooves 2a in their inner circumferential surfaces, and the flanged members 7 have ridges 7c extending from tapered tips 7a to straight barrels 7b. The flanged members 7 are turned to bring the ridges 7c thereof into alignment with the grooves 2a of the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2, and then inserted into the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2, respectively.
Usually, the inside diameter of the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2, the outside diameter of the flanged members 7, or the shapes (circularity, etc.) of the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 and the flanged members 7, are liable to change. When the tapered tips 7a of the flanged members 7 are inserted into the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 and the flanged members 7 are turned, the ridges 7c of the tapered tips 7a move out of the grooves 2a, so that the tapered tips 7a of the flanged members 7 may be inserted into the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 while the ridges 7c are out of alignment with the grooves 2a. 
With the ridges 7c not aligned with the grooves 2a, the flanged members 7 cannot easily be removed from the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 when the components of the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 are to be reused after the light-shielded photosensitive roll 5 has been used.
Since the disk-shaped light-shielding members 2 and the flanged members 7 are engaged with each other under widely different conditions, a large torque is required to turn the flanged members 7. Therefore, a large torque generating device for generating a torque required to turn the flanged members 7 is needed, and hence a large device for installing the flanged members 7 is required.
An apparatus for packaging the above light-shielded photosensitive roll is known from Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-129613, for example. In the known apparatus, as shown in FIG. 107 of the accompanying drawings, inner seals (light-shielding members) 3d are applied to the respective opposite ends of a photographic film roll 2d on a core, and a light-shielding sheet 4d is wound around the photographic film roll 2d. The light-shielding sheet 4d has side edge portions 5d (one shown) projecting outwardly beyond the edges of the inner seals 3d and folded down against the inner seals 3d by folding units 6d and heated by heating units 7d. Each of the folding units 6d has folding vanes 8d which are rotated by a motor, and each of the heating units 7d has a heating roller 9d. 
When the photographic film roll 2d is rotated about its own axis in the direction indicated by the arrow by a rotating mechanism (not shown), the folding vanes 8d of the folding units 6d fold down the side edge portions 5d of the light-shielding sheet 4d against the inner seals 3d, and the heating rollers 9d of the heating units 7d heat the side edge portions 5d, thermally bonding the side edge portions 5d to the inner seals 3d. 
The conventional packaging apparatus is complex in structure and large in size because of a rotating mechanism for rotating the photographic film roll 2d. The heating rollers 9d of the heating units 7d need to be adjusted in position for processing photographic film rolls 2d having different outside diameters. The heating units 7d with such a positional adjustment capability are also complex in structure.
Apparatus for manufacturing photosensitive rolls usually have a number of working stations which are supplied with specification data on shapes and materials of photosensitive rolls for processing workpieces depending on the specifications of photosensitive rolls.
When a photosensitive roll is fed from one working station to a next working station, the specification data are also transferred to a controller associated with the next working station. The controller operates on the premise that the transferred specification data are the specification data for the fed photosensitive roll.
If a photosensitive roll manufacturing apparatus performs a complex manufacturing process and has many working stations, then since there is no guarantee that the specification data will always be transferred normally, the reliability of the specification data may become lower as they go to more downstream working stations. When the photosensitive roll manufacturing apparatus continuously operates under such conditions, inappropriate photosensitive rolls may possibly be manufactured, or control devices of the photosensitive roll manufacturing apparatus may possibly be damaged or otherwise malfunction.
If trouble arises while a photosensitive roll is being fed and the photosensitive roll is removed from its pallet, then a photosensitive roll and specification data supplied to a working station may not correspond to each other.
One solution would be for each of the pallets for feeding photosensitive rolls between working stations to be equipped with a memory means for storing the specification data of a photosensitive roll, so that when a pallet arrives at a working station, the working station reads the specification data stored in the memory means on the pallet. The memory means on the pallets allow each working station to operate on the pallet appropriately without the danger of data transfer troubles.
However, the memory means on each pallet needs to rewrite the stored specification data each time a different photosensitive roll is carried on the pallet. Since the memory means is limited to a certain number of rewriting cycles, if the pallet is repeatedly used in a mass-production application, then the service life of the memory means is relatively short because the stored specification data are rewritten many times.